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Nicaragua Grey Water Project

Grey Water Reuse Project: Venecia, Nicaragua The village of Venecia has a water shortage issue. They currently have a distribution system that serves 175 homes. However, because the water is scarce during the dry season, they are only able to turn the taps on to about 20% of the homes at any given time. People will go for days without having access to clean potable water. Venecia is also working on a project with the Vermont Professional Chapter of EWB to repair and develop their existing water system. In the interest of utilizing whatever resources they can, the members of the community have asked EWB UVM to help them develop a method for re-using their grey water to water their home gardens. The community's goal for the new project is to find a way to maintain their home gardens, which is a main source of food AND still have enough water for consumption throughout the year. EWB UVM is partnering with the Vermont Professional Chapter of EWB and the local NGO: CII ASDENIC to plan our first service trip for assessment and to meet the community members. The project was approved by EWB USA in December 2013 and the group traveled on its first assesment trip in May 2014. The community is very responsive to the grey water project and the local University Students we worked with are very engaged too. This partnership has great potential and will be successful with our continued efforts. The data collected on the assessment trip will be used for designing the system. Now is a great opportunity to get involved in the design phase. Our goal is for our implementation trip to be in January 2015.

Dome Project

The dome project is building earthquake/hurricane refugee shelters out of lightweight, cost effective materials.
The members of EWB-UVM built a prototype in Essex, VT out of concrete mixed with carpet to make it lightweight and cheap.
The structure was built successfully and can sleep 10-12 people, more in case of an emergency. Test panels of different mixtures have been tested in Votey Hall's structure's lab to see which materials perform best under loading.

Update

All this experience and information is being used to design and construct Dome 2.0 prototype.
Meetings with VT-Haiti project are now underway to plan for implementation of these structures in Haiti. For more information on this project you can contact the project lead Matt Brand. (mwbrand@uvm.edu)
The dome project is building earthquake/hurricane refugee shelters out of lightweight, cost effective materials. The members of EWB-UVM built a prototype in Essex, VT out of concrete mixed with carpet to make it lightweight and cheap. The structure was built successfully and can sleep 10-12 people, more in case of an emergency. Test panels of different mixtures have been tested in Votey Hall's structure's lab to see which materials perform best under loading. All this experience and information is being used to design and construct Dome 2.0 prototype. Meetings with VT-Haiti project are now underway to plan for implementation of these structures in Haiti.

If you would like more information or want to get involved with either project, please attend one of our general meetings or contact or secretary nvarhue@uvm.edu.